Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Want to ensure the health and happiness of everyone in our community? Enrich our lively arts scene? Support the education of our young people? Live & Give Longmont is our chance to come together on one extraordinary day(TODAY, Sept. 26) to celebrate our collective spirit of giving and provide seed funding for nonprofits and projects that help our community.

Imagine! is a Live & Give Longmont participating organization. You can help kids and adults with developmental disabilities enjoy all that Longmont has to offer, while they build cooperative skills! Imagine!'s Out & About participants are in Longmont for day camp, after-school, and weekend activities! About 75 people enjoy the Longmont Rec Center, bowling at Centennial Lanes, the Dickens Opera House, Firehouse Art, and Yaya Farms. The entrance fees for these activities add up, and your gift will help Imagine! provide even more opportunities to these venues.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Join Imagine! and lots of other great organizations tomorrow (Sept. 23, 12-3) at Erie United Methodist Church for Food Truck Rally...For A Cause. Come out and support your favorite food trucks and learn more about the non-profits that serve our community.

Thursday, September 21, 2017

This Friday, from 8-noon, you are invited to stop by Imagine!’s Coal Creek building (1665 Coal Creek Drive, Lafayette, CO 80026) to purchase some drinks and treats in support of Imagine!’s Innovations department’s upcoming Fall Formal. The Fall Formal is a celebration for all of the individuals who receive services from Innovations. It promises to be a fun and social atmosphere full of dancing, friends, and community, and you can help make it happen by joining Innovations on Friday. We hope to see you there!

Friday, September 15, 2017

Imagine!'s Family Support Services Program (FSSP) uses the “Life Saver” award to recognize and honor outstanding employee performance for their overall initiative, positive attitude, and attention detail to job responsibilities.

This month’s recipient is Erica Stamm

"Erica brings a positive and resilient attitude to our FSSP team and she is always exploring creative ways to be proactive. Erica’s main focus has been to guide parents and families with a “hands-on” approach to support her families in any way they need. Erica is a valued FSSP Navigator and is extremely active in the day-to-day mission of FSSP. Erica brings an honest outlook to our team and lets her passion guide her in the work that she does at Imagine!."

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Every month, Imagine!’s Innovations department presents the “Super Hero of the Month” award to the employee or provider who has best demonstrated excellence in one or more of our Innovations Quality Standards:

Health, Safety, and Wellbeing

Effective and Efficient

Respect and Dignity

Opportunities

Integrity

Care

This month, the award was presented to Andrea Kintop, who is a Primary Residential Counselor at the Foothills Group Home.

Andrea was nominated by her Site Supervisor, who wrote:

I'd like to nominate Andrea Kintop for the Innovations Heroic Award. Andrea brings a positive attitude to work with her every day and it makes a huge difference in the overall atmosphere here at Foothills. She constantly has new and creative ideas for the residents and the house in general. You can tell that Andrea sincerely cares for the residents very deeply and focuses on giving them the best quality care. She gladly took on a weekly task to go to Food Share, which is not part of the typical primary residential counselor role, so that she could take one of the residents who loves to go there on his day off. Recently she planned birthday celebrations for two residents who have a birthday on the same day. She took one resident out for lunch and to Food Share, which was what he wanted to do. Later that same day she took two more residents out to dinner together to celebrate. She stayed much passed her scheduled hours to be able to celebrate with them and make it possible for them to do what they wanted to do on their birthdays. Andrea is an outstanding employee and role model at Foothills.

Monday, September 11, 2017

Imagine!’s Early Intervention (EI) program has a terrific team working to create a world of opportunity for all abilities. To show how much they’re appreciated, each month this team chooses a “Rockstar” within their program. Team members submit nominations describing what each nominee has contributed, going above and beyond to support those we serve.

Friday, September 8, 2017

Kevin is 16 years old and attends Summer Camp through Imagine!. Over the years, he has developed a strong interest in gaming and anime, and the conventions highlighting them. Kevin had a successful summer attending both Comic-Con and NDK in Denver.

What is a cosplay and tell me about yours:
A cosplay is a better costume. It’s a full out costume length rather than the random costumes you see in the store. Better texture. Like a cosplay of a Storm Trooper has the full armor, helmet, and all the pads. It’s more authentic. This year, I am Neku Sakurama from World Ends With You. The game came out 6-7 years ago and so when I brought him back, people liked it. It took me about a day to put that cosplay together. I bought his headset and added some duct tape and other decorations. The tricky part is finding the props and weapons for the character. Some people take about two weeks to make their cosplay, like for Game of Thrones or Star Wars.

How were the conventions this year?
I like Comic-Con because it has more to do with gaming and has panels with speakers and presentations about the games.

NDK is full of people walking around in their cosplay. I walked up to Jack Sparrow and he asked me if I have a key to unlock Davy Jone’s lock. (Laughs), I said no, but you can try this one (in a British accent) and handed him an imaginary key.

I took A LOT of pictures of people in their cosplays, they posed for me. Deadpool was a fun one to see, I told him Spider-Man was looking for him and he said ‘What? Where?’ And frantically crawled away.

You meet more friends, meet people and make best friends in seconds. I saw some people I met last year. You talk about the same specific thing that artists, or actors, or studios, or a publication talks about. You meet people with same interests. (Kevin’s mother shared, “It’s so nice for him to be at an activity where EVERYBODY knows what he’s talking about and is interested in the same thing.”)

The gift shops are cool. It’s like a bigger version of Gamestop, only for each game they have movies, magazines, posters, action figures as well. For food, we had to cross the street from the convention and it was funny, everyone in their cosplays in public. People in their cars looking at us and taking pictures of us.

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Imagine!’s Case Management department works with many great people. To show how much they are all appreciated, each month they choose an “Unsung Hero” within the department. Case Managers, support staff, and Case Management supervisors all put in nominations describing what the person has contributed to Case Management to go above and beyond to support those we serve.

We would like to recognize Alicia Burdick as this month’s Case Management Unsung Hero.

Alicia has gone above and beyond during her first few weeks as a new supervisor. You can tell she truly cares about her employees and making sure they feel supported is her first priority. It’s obvious that Alicia has a lot on her plate and is trying to balance multiple things, however she had never made me feel like she doesn’t have time to listen to my frustrations, concerns, or questions.

Friday, September 1, 2017

Every year, Imagine! facilitates a Leadership Development Group (LDG), comprised of 5-6 employees who want to strengthen their leadership skills. This ten month program offers mentorship, training opportunities, self-study, attendance at executive meetings, and includes a case study to address a specific challenge that Imagine! is facing. Below is the brand new class of LDG 2017-2018! 1) What is your definition of a leader?
2) Favorite Super Hero?

Ally Joel

1) A leader is someone who has clear and obtainable goals to work towards and communicates those to the group they are leading and supporting. Leaders make themselves available to those who need support and holds an empathetic approach using empowerment rather than enabling them. Best of all, leaders have a unique sense of intrinsic-motivation and can motivate others to accomplish a shared goal/objective.

2) Wonder Woman

Britt McWilliams

1) A leader is someone who is able to establish a trusting relationship within a group by being authentic in their own communication, receptive to others’ ideas, and is willing to remain open-minded and flexible.

2) Master Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Brodie Schulz

1) A good leader is one that does not, initially, aspire to lead, but rather aspires to serve and through serving others begins to lead as they place the care and needs of those served as their highest priority. A leader believes in the potential of all and recognizes and supports the need to be creative and innovative. They also recognize their own limitations and understand that they cannot be successful alone, but can only achieve through the service and support of others.

2) Green Lantern

Jeff Rodarti

1) A leader understands the value of optimism, that change begins with oneself, and that listening is where it all begins.

2) Professor X

Jen McIntyre

1) A leader is someone who is honest with themselves and with their team. It is someone others can rely on for support and encouragement. A leader recognizes the potential of others and works hard to build upon those strengths. A leader is someone who can lead from the front, just as well as from the back and recognizes that success doesn’t occur due to 1 person’s abilities but from the talents of all team members combined.